Buyer's guide
Prefer's Starter plan tracks 30 prompts on five AI engines for $24/mo. 10 AI visibility tools under $100 a month, prices verified, cost per prompt shown.
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The short answer
Prefer is the best AI visibility tool for a small business on a budget: $24 a month for 30 prompts on ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity, Google AI Overviews and AI Mode, plus 15 AI articles a month, with no engine add-ons. It is the lowest published paid entry on this list and the only paid plan under $100 here with five engines and a published article allowance. Otterly is the cheapest sticker ($29, 15 prompts, daily), LLM Pulse the best five-engine monitor per prompt (49 EUR, 50 prompts), and AthenaHQ the best free tier (300 credits, five models).
Prefer Five engines and articles under $100 
Otterly $29 for 15 prompts, tracked daily 
AthenaHQ 300 credits across five models, no card DisclosurePrefer publishes this list, and Prefer is on it. Every other price here was read on that vendor's own pricing page in a rendered browser on the date in the sources, and every entry names what that tool does better than us. The per-prompt column is arithmetic on those prices, not opinion.
In short
How we evaluated
Prefer is the best AI visibility tool for a small marketing team on a budget: $24 a month for 30 prompts on all five engines plus 15 AI articles, the lowest published paid entry here. Ten tools have a paid plan under $100 or a usable free tier. Otterly is $29 for 15 prompts, LLM Pulse 49 EUR for 50 prompts on five models, AthenaHQ free with 300 credits.
Entry price divided by the prompts the entry tier includes, per month. It is the fairest way to compare a $29 plan with a $95 plan, and it is computed the same way as our verified pricing index so the numbers match. Credit meters and unpublished prices get no figure.
The engines on the plan you can afford, not the engines on the pricing hero. Several tools on this list sell Gemini, AI Mode or Claude as add-ons or include three models of six, so the honest count is engines per dollar at the tier under $100.
Reporting only, recommendations, or drafting. Under $100 most tools report; a few recommend; one drafts with a published article count. A finding nobody acts on costs a small team more than the subscription.
A free tier or trial gets you started; the next plan decides whether you can stay. Two tools here start free and jump to $295 or an unpublished quote, so check the second price before you commit to the first.
The scores
Each dimension is scored 0 to 5 on the scale below and the overall is the plain average, so you can check every number against the facts on this page. Prefer is our product and is scored on the same scale.
| Tool | Engines at entry | Prompt-level data | Citation sources | Action layer | Price per prompt | Overall |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Prefer (our product) | 4.0 | 5.0 | 5.0 | 5.0 | 5.0 | 4.8/5 |
| LLM Pulse | 4.0 | 5.0 | 3.0 | 2.0 | 5.0 | 3.8/5 |
| MentionScout | 4.0 | 5.0 | 3.0 | 2.0 | 5.0 | 3.8/5 |
| Otterly | 3.0 | 5.0 | 5.0 | 2.0 | 4.0 | 3.8/5 |
| HubSpot AEO | 2.0 | 5.0 | 5.0 | 2.0 | 3.0 | 3.4/5 |
| Peec AI | 2.0 | 5.0 | 5.0 | 1.0 | 4.0 | 3.4/5 |
| PromptWatch | 3.0 | 5.0 | 3.0 | 2.0 | 4.0 | 3.4/5 |
| Semrush | 4.0 | 5.0 | 3.0 | 1.0 | 2.0 | 3.0/5 |
How each number is set
Scored 26 September 2026 from the facts on this page: the engines and prompt counts stated in each entry, the capability table, and our verified pricing index (competitor pricing pages read in a rendered browser between 16 and 26 September 2026). Because this page is about what under $100 buys, every dimension is scored at the entry tier: Otterly's three weekly recommendations, HubSpot's prioritized recommendations, LLM Pulse's and MentionScout's recommended actions and PromptWatch's agent credits score as recommendations, and PromptWatch's articles, which start at $245, do not count. MentionScout's engine score uses its $59 Starter (5 engines) and its price score uses its free plan; its Starter prompt count comes from the vendor's July 2026 blog. LLM Pulse's per-prompt figure is arithmetic on its euro price, shown as listed. Two tools are not scored: AthenaHQ meters credits (one credit is one AI response), not prompts, and AirOps publishes no price and no prompt count. Both stay in the ranked list on their documented strengths. Prefer's row uses the same rules as every other row.
Three kinds of tools under $100
Track a fixed prompt set on a schedule and report mentions, citations and share of voice. Fast to set up, clean to read, and only worth it if someone on the team has time to act on what they show.
Buy one if you will do the writing and the outreach yourself.Track the same answers and add a step toward changing them: HubSpot ranks recommendations inside its CRM, Prefer drafts the articles and tracks the prompts to see what moved, with off-page work on Prefer Managed.
Buy one if you are accountable for the number moving, not for a dashboard existing.A usable free tier with a content agent (AthenaHQ) or a content platform with ChatGPT tracking attached (AirOps). Both are honest ways to begin; neither has a paid plan under $100 to grow into.
Start here if the budget is zero and read the next price before you build a workflow on it.The ranked list
Prefer first (our product, disclosed); then by overall score, ties broken by the lower paid entry price; the two unscored tools (credit meter, no published price) last so no rank rests on a guess.
PreferPrefer's Starter plan tracks 30 buyer prompts across ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity, Google AI Overviews and AI Mode and writes 15 AI articles a month, for $24, with no engine add-ons and no credit meter.
OtterlyOtterly's Lite plan is the cheapest paid sticker here: $29 a month for 15 prompts tracked daily across ChatGPT, Google AI Overviews, Perplexity and Copilot.
LLM PulseLLM Pulse's Starter plan is 49 EUR a month for 50 prompts on five AI models (ChatGPT, Perplexity, Google AI Mode, AI Overviews, Gemini), tracked weekly.
MentionScoutMentionScout has a free plan (10 prompts on three engines) and a $59 Starter that adds server-log crawler analytics, so a small team can see AI bot visits beside its answer tracking.
HubSpot AEOHubSpot AEO is $50 a month for 25 prompts on ChatGPT, Gemini and Perplexity, with citation analysis, share of voice and prioritized recommendations, sold standalone or inside Marketing Hub.
Peec AIPeec AI's Starter is $95 a month for 50 prompts tracked daily on three models of your choice, with the clean prompt-level analytics agencies like.
PromptWatchPromptWatch's Essential plan is $95 a month for 50 prompts on 4 of its 11 models, with 500 agent credits, MCP and API access, and no AEO articles until the $245 plan.
Semrush AI Visibility toolkitSemrush's standalone AI Visibility toolkit is $99 a month per domain for 25 prompts tracked daily on ChatGPT, Google AI Overviews, AI Mode, Gemini and Perplexity.
AthenaHQAthenaHQ's Essential plan is free: 300 credits across ChatGPT, Perplexity, AI Overviews, Gemini and Copilot, with a content agent, and nothing between it and the $295 Starter.
AirOpsAirOps' Solo plan starts free and reads ChatGPT insights only; it is a content-production platform with tracking attached, and publishes no dollar price on any tier.
Side by side
Capability at the tier under $100 (or the free tier), as read on each vendor's page between 16 and 26 September 2026. Partial means the tool does something adjacent at that tier. Engines means five or more AI engines included at that price. Drafts means the tier includes written content, not recommendations.
| Tool | 5+ engines | Own prompts | Citation sources | Drafts content | Free way in | From |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Prefer | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ~ | $24 |
| Otterly | - | ✓ | ✓ | - | ~ | $29 |
| LLM Pulse | ✓ | ✓ | ~ | - | ~ | 49 EUR |
| MentionScout | ~ | ✓ | ~ | - | ✓ | Free |
| HubSpot AEO | - | ✓ | ✓ | - | ~ | $50 |
| Peec AI | - | ✓ | ✓ | - | ~ | $95 |
| PromptWatch | - | ✓ | ~ | ~ | ~ | $95 |
| Semrush | ✓ | ✓ | ~ | - | ~ | $99 |
| AthenaHQ | ✓ | ✓ | ~ | ~ | ✓ | Free |
| AirOps | - | ✓ | ~ | ✓ | ✓ | Free |
The map
PreferOur productOtterlyLLM PulseMentionScoutHubSpot AEOPeec AIPromptWatchSemrushAthenaHQAirOpsWhat changed in 2026
This list looked different a year ago. These are the changes that moved it.
In September 2026 eight tools on this page sell a real paid plan at or below $99 and two more start free, so a small team no longer has to choose between a serious tool and an affordable one. The choice moved from whether you can afford a tool to what its meter buys.
Sticker prices converged near $29, $50 and $95, so vendors moved the difference into what the sticker excludes: Otterly prices Gemini, AI Mode and Claude separately, Peec AI includes three models of six, LLM Pulse sells Claude and Copilot from 10 EUR each. The cheapest plan is rarely the cheapest plan with the engines you need.
AthenaHQ's free tier is generous and its next plan is $295. AirOps starts free and publishes no price. PromptWatch removed its $0 plan in August 2026. A free start is worth taking; a free start with an under-$100 second step is now the rarer thing.
Most plans under $100 report or recommend. The tools that write content start at $245 (PromptWatch), $295 (AthenaHQ's action tier) or an unpublished price (AirOps). Prefer's Starter is the exception on this list, which is why we put the article allowance in the verdict rather than the price alone.
Red flags
Every tool here demos well. These are the questions that separate them once the trial ends.
A $29 or $95 sticker with Gemini, AI Mode or Claude sold separately is a different price once you add the engines your buyers use. Add them up before you compare. On this list Otterly and LLM Pulse sell engines as add-ons and Peec AI charges $30 a month per extra model.
Credits sound generous and run out by the response, not the prompt. 300 credits across five models is 60 prompts checked once. Ask what one credit buys and how many a weekly run of your prompts costs.
Several pages default to the annual figure, sometimes without a visible toggle. Peec AI defaulted to annual in August 2026, and LLM Pulse showed an approximate dollar figure first. Read the monthly figure in the currency you will pay.
If the next plan is $295 or a quote, the free tier is a demo, not a plan. Decide whether you can live on the free allowance indefinitely before you build a weekly habit on it.
Otterly's Lite does not sell extra prompts, and HubSpot does not print the price of one. If the plan cannot grow by ten prompts without a tier change, the real price is the next tier.
A visibility number with no way to open the answer and the cited URLs behind it is a chart, not evidence. Every tool on this page shows citations at some level; check that the plan under $100 does.
The basics
An AI visibility tool for a small business runs the questions your buyers ask across AI engines like ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity and Google AI Overviews on a schedule, records whether you are named and which pages the answers cite, and shows you what to change. Under $100 a month, the tools on this page differ mostly in three numbers: the prompts you get, the engines those prompts run on, and whether the plan writes anything for you.
The terms below are the ones the pricing pages use. Where vendors use the same word for different meters, the definition says which meaning this page uses.
Prefer is the best AI visibility tool for a small business or a small marketing team on a budget: its Starter plan is $24 a month for 30 prompts on ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity, Google AI Overviews and AI Mode, plus 15 AI articles a month. It is our product, and it is the lowest published paid entry on this page. The other nine tools here either sell a paid plan at or under $99 a month or have a free tier you can stay on. Every price was read on the vendor’s own pricing page in a rendered browser between 16 and 26 September 2026, and the verified pricing index holds the full tiers above $100.
Two things this page does that the vendor listicles on this question do not. It divides every entry price by the prompts that tier includes, so a $29 plan and a $95 plan can be compared on the same unit. And it counts the engines at the entry price, not on the pricing hero, because that is where the cheap plans hide the bill.
Price per prompt is the entry price divided by the prompts the entry tier includes, per month, the same arithmetic as our pricing index. It does not count engines, so read it beside the engine column. Prefer’s figure is computed from our published price list.
| Tool | Entry price | Prompts | Per prompt | Engines at entry |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Prefer (ours) | Starter, $24/mo | 30 | $0.80 | 5 (ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity, AI Overviews, AI Mode) |
| Otterly | Lite, $29/mo | 15 | $1.93 | 4 (ChatGPT, AI Overviews, Perplexity, Copilot) |
| LLM Pulse | Starter, 49 EUR/mo | 50 | EUR 0.98 | 5 (ChatGPT, Perplexity, AI Mode, AI Overviews, Gemini) |
| MentionScout | Starter, $59/mo (free plan: 10 prompts) | 40 (July 2026 blog) | $1.48 | 5 of 7 |
| HubSpot AEO | $50/mo | 25 | $2.00 | 3 (ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity) |
| Peec AI | Starter, $95/mo | 50 | $1.90 | 3 of 6, your choice |
| PromptWatch | Essential, $95/mo | 50 | $1.90 | 4 of 11 |
| Semrush AI Visibility toolkit | $99/mo per domain | 25 | $3.96 | 5 (ChatGPT, AI Overviews, AI Mode, Gemini, Perplexity) |
| AthenaHQ | Essential, free (next plan $295) | 300 credits | n/a (credits) | 5 (ChatGPT, Perplexity, AI Overviews, Gemini, Copilot) |
| AirOps | Solo, free start (no price published) | Not published | n/a | 1 (ChatGPT) |
Three plans cluster near $1.90 a prompt (Otterly, Peec AI, PromptWatch) even though their stickers run from $29 to $95. HubSpot AEO is $2.00, and Semrush’s toolkit is the highest at $3.96 because its $99 buys 25 prompts. LLM Pulse is the lowest of the monitors at EUR 0.98, and Prefer’s Starter is $0.80 with the articles included. MentionScout’s $1.48 uses a prompt count from the vendor’s July 2026 blog, since its pricing page could not be re-read; treat it as the vendor’s own figure.
Under $100, three tools include five AI engines with no add-ons: Prefer, LLM Pulse and Semrush’s AI Visibility toolkit. Otterly’s $29 Lite covers four, and Google Gemini and AI Mode are $9 a month each with Claude at $29, so Lite with both Google surfaces and Gemini added is $47. Peec AI includes three models of your choice from six on its $95 plan, and each extra model is $30, so five models are $155 and Perplexity is Enterprise-only. HubSpot AEO covers ChatGPT, Gemini and Perplexity at $50, with neither Google AI surface listed on the product page. PromptWatch tracks four of its eleven models at $95. Ask which engines are on the plan under $100 before you ask what the plan costs.
Prefer is our product and our pick, for the reason in the verdict: $24 a month is the lowest published paid entry here, the five engines are all included, and the 15 AI articles a month mean the plan does some of the work rather than pointing at it. The next plan up is above $100. Start with the free audit and the plans page.
Otterly is the cheapest sticker and the cheapest daily tracker: $29 for 15 prompts on four engines, three recommendations a week, unlimited team members. Fifteen prompts is a reading, not a program, and the engine add-ons are the catch. Read the Otterly review.
LLM Pulse is the monitor with the lowest per-prompt price and five engines included: 49 EUR for 50 prompts, weekly, with Search Console integration and a 14-day trial. Daily tracking is 79 EUR on the same plan, and Claude is an add-on from 10 EUR.
MentionScout is the free plan with a cheap paid step: 10 prompts free on three engines, then $59 with server-log crawler analytics that no other tool under $100 here offers. It flags gaps and ranks actions; the work stays with you. See the MentionScout alternatives page for the trade-offs.
HubSpot AEO is $50 for 25 prompts on three engines, with citation analysis and prioritized recommendations, and it lives inside the HubSpot account your team may already open every day. No Google surface is listed, and each extra brand is another $50.
Peec AI and PromptWatch both sell 50 prompts for $95. Peec tracks daily on three models of your choice with clean prompt-level analytics (Peec AI review); PromptWatch gives you MCP and API access and 500 agent credits at entry, with articles from $245 (Prefer vs PromptWatch).
Semrush’s AI Visibility toolkit is $99 per domain for 25 prompts on five engines, tracked daily, the highest per-prompt price here and the easiest to justify if you already pay Semrush for SEO (Semrush AI Toolkit review).
AthenaHQ and AirOps are the free starts. AthenaHQ’s Essential is free with 300 credits across five models and a content agent, and its next plan is $295 (AthenaHQ review). AirOps starts free on ChatGPT insights only and publishes no price (AirOps review). Both are honest ways to begin and neither has an under-$100 plan to grow into.
Run the free AI visibility checker first: 25 buyer prompts across four engines, the cited sources, and a ranked fix list, with no account and no card. The other free checks are compared on the free AI visibility tools page. Then put your own writing and editing rates into the cost calculator, because under $100 the subscription is rarely the expensive part. For the same vendors ranked without the price cap, read the best AI visibility tools list, and for what every tier above $100 costs, the verified pricing index.
The questions buyers ask next.
Prefer, for a team that wants the tracking and the content in one plan: $24 a month for 30 prompts on five engines plus 15 AI articles, with no engine add-ons or credits. It is our product, and it is the lowest published paid entry on this page. A team that will do its own writing can pay less per prompt with LLM Pulse (49 EUR, 50 prompts, five models) or start daily tracking with Otterly at $29.
See Prefer's plans →Yes. Eight tools on this page sell a paid plan at or under $99: Prefer ($24), Otterly ($29), LLM Pulse (49 EUR), HubSpot AEO ($50), MentionScout ($59), Peec AI ($95), PromptWatch ($95) and Semrush's AI Visibility toolkit ($99 per domain). AthenaHQ and AirOps add two free starts. Prices were read on each vendor's page between 16 and 26 September 2026.
See the verified pricing index →Prefer has the cheapest published paid plan on this list at $24 a month, and AthenaHQ and MentionScout have free plans. Otterly's $29 Lite is the next paid sticker, and LLM Pulse's 49 EUR Starter is the lowest price per prompt if you count the euro figure as listed. The sticker is not the whole price: add the engines you need before you compare.
Prefer's free AI visibility checker runs 25 buyer prompts across four engines with no account, and AthenaHQ's free tier, MentionScout's free plan and AirOps' free Solo start are ongoing free plans with different meters. Free checkers are one sample; a free plan is a small allowance. Both are honest ways to start.
See the free AI visibility tools →Less than the writing will cost, which is why Prefer's Starter includes 15 AI articles a month in its $24 price. Under $100 a month buys tracking on every tool here; the expensive part is the content and outreach that changes the answers. Our cost calculator adds your own writing and editing rates to any subscription so you can see the real monthly figure.
Run the cost calculator →Questions
Prefer, if the team wants tracking and content in one plan: $24 a month buys 30 prompts on all five engines (ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity, Google AI Overviews and AI Mode) plus 15 AI articles a month, and there is no engine add-on or credit meter to price in later. It is our product, so weigh that. If you only want a daily reading, Otterly is $29 for 15 prompts on four engines; if you want five engines at the lowest price per prompt, LLM Pulse is 49 EUR for 50 prompts; if you have no budget at all, AthenaHQ's free tier is the right answer.
Yes, ten on this page. Prefer's Starter is $24 a month, the lowest published paid entry on the list, with all five engines and 15 AI articles included. The others with a paid plan under $100 are Otterly ($29, 15 prompts), LLM Pulse (49 EUR, 50 prompts), HubSpot AEO ($50, 25 prompts), MentionScout ($59 Starter, free plan with 10 prompts), Peec AI ($95, 50 prompts), PromptWatch ($95, 50 prompts) and Semrush's AI Visibility toolkit ($99 per domain, 25 prompts). AthenaHQ and AirOps start free, and their next step is $295 or unpublished. Every price was read on the vendor's own page between 16 and 26 September 2026.
Prefer has the cheapest published paid plan on this list, $24 a month, and the lowest price per tracked prompt among the dollar-priced tiers. AthenaHQ and MentionScout have free plans (300 credits and 10 prompts), and AirOps starts free on ChatGPT only. The cheapest sticker after Prefer is Otterly's $29 Lite, which is 15 prompts on four engines with Gemini, AI Mode and Claude sold as add-ons from $9 a month each. LLM Pulse at 49 EUR for 50 prompts is the lowest per-prompt price if you count its euro figure as listed.
Yes. Prefer offers a free AI visibility audit and a 7-day free trial on every paid plan, and our free checker runs 25 prompts across four engines with no account. For an ongoing free plan, AthenaHQ's Essential tier is free with 300 credits across five models, MentionScout's free plan tracks 10 prompts on three engines, and AirOps' Solo plan starts free on ChatGPT insights only. Every one of those trades prompts, engines or depth for the zero, so read the meter before you rely on it.
Enough to cover the questions your buyers ask at each stage, which for most small businesses is 20 to 50 prompts: your category question, three or four alternatives and versus questions, and the how-to questions your product answers. Prefer's Starter includes 30 prompts on five engines, and its free audit runs up to 25 so you can see which prompts matter before you pay. A 15-prompt plan is a reading, not a program, and a 50-prompt plan on three models covers less than 30 prompts on five.
Not all of them at the entry price. Prefer covers ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity, Google AI Overviews and AI Mode on its $24 plan. LLM Pulse and Semrush's toolkit also include five engines under $100. Otterly's $29 plan covers ChatGPT, AI Overviews, Perplexity and Copilot, with Gemini and AI Mode at $9 a month each. HubSpot AEO covers ChatGPT, Gemini and Perplexity, with no Google surface listed. Peec AI's $95 plan is three models of your choice from six, and Perplexity is Enterprise-only.
Which plan gives you more of the thing you are buying. Prefer's Starter is under a dollar per tracked prompt on five engines. Otterly's $29 for 15 prompts is $1.93, Peec AI's $95 for 50 is $1.90, PromptWatch's $95 for 50 is $1.90, HubSpot's $50 for 25 is $2.00, and Semrush's $99 for 25 is $3.96. The arithmetic is entry price divided by the prompts that tier includes, the same as our verified pricing index; it does not count engines, so read it beside the engine column.
References
How to choose
If yes, buy the cheapest monitor with the engines you need: Otterly for a daily reading on four engines, LLM Pulse for five engines at 49 EUR. If no, the only paid plan under $100 here with a published article allowance is Prefer's Starter, and the next tools that write start at $245.
If it is ChatGPT plus Google's AI surfaces, insist on Google AI Overviews and AI Mode at the entry price. Prefer, LLM Pulse and Semrush's toolkit include both under $100; HubSpot AEO lists neither; Otterly sells AI Mode as a $9 add-on.
Count your category question, your alternatives and versus questions and the how-to questions you answer. Prefer's Starter covers 30 on five engines. Under 15, Otterly's Lite fits. Around 50, LLM Pulse, Peec AI or PromptWatch, checking the engine count on each.
Zero means AthenaHQ's free tier or MentionScout's free plan, and a plan to move when the credits run out. Either way, Prefer's free AI visibility audit gives you a baseline before you spend anything. Under $100 means the ranked list above, ordered by what each dollar buys rather than by the sticker.
Keep going
See how answer engines describe your brand today, and where the openings are to outpace the competition.
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